Pecos

Another year has passed here at Texas Prison Bid'ness, and what an exciting year it has been. As we have done in the past, the bloggers here at TPB would like to recap our favorite or perhaps the most memorable stories/topics over the past year. Over the next few days, we'll be posting 2009's top five stories related to private prisons.

This is the second biggest story of 2009.

#2 Protests and riots at the GEO Group's Reeves County Detention Center

2009 started out with second riot at GEO's Reeves County Detention Center in Pecos, Texas by prisoners angered at multiple deaths and a lack of medical care at the facility. By year's end, nine immigrant prisoners had died in the facility in the last four years. The riots could cost the county, which owns the facility over $1 million in repair costs. In the wake of the riots, the ACLU of Texas requested a Department of Justice review of the facility, and attorney Juan Angel Guerra was denied access to clients in Pecos.

Several major investigative pieces covered the issue, including Forrest Wilder's Texas Observer piece ("The Pecos Insurrection," October 2) which chronicled last year's December 12th riot after the death of prisoner Jesus Manuel Galindo, and Tom Barry's Boston Reviewstory ("A Death in Texas," November/December 2009) puts Galindo's death and the subsequent disturbances in the context of how Pecos got into the prison-building business in the first place. Barry later spoke to Terry Gross about Reeves and private detention on NPR's Fresh Air.

Protesters gathered at the GEO Group's regional headquarters in New Braunfels on December 10th with coffins to represent the nine prisoner deaths at the facility in the last four years. Texas Prison Bid'ness blogger and Grassroots Leadership organizer Bob Libal joined Maria Reynaga, the sister of a prisoner at RCDC, and ACLU of Texas director Terri Burke to deliver a letter to GEO executives calling on the company to to submit to a Department of Justice investigation into immigrant prisoner deaths and the conditions of confinement at RCDC, implement a transparent grievance system, and allow civil rights groups to monitor conditions at the facility.

Family members and protesters also gathered in Pecos on December 12th, the anniversary of the death of the Jesus Manuel Galindo. Galindo's death sparked the first of the two major riots at the prison in protest to a lack of medical care and abusive conditions. At the same time, the ACLU of Texas met with prisoners at RCDC, who described atrocious conditions at the facility, according to an op-ed by the ACLU's Tracey Hayes ("ACLU Texas advocate reveals inside look at inhumane conditions and profiteering at GEO managed detention center," Restore Fairness),

Prison officials keep medical costs down by making it almost impossible for inmates to get adequate medical care. They keep food costs down by serving low quality food in insufficient amounts. They keep administrative costs down by restricting access to grievance processes with English-only requirements and by punishing English speakers who assist mono-lingual Spanish speakers in filling out the forms. Bi-lingual speakers who try to help others must eventually choose between being thrown into solitary confinement or ending their translation assistance.

Furthermore, GEO’s cost-cutting has led to a long and steady rise in the company’s profits while atrocities continue unabated. For example, detainees spoke of medical staff prescribing “two Tylenol” to detainees who complain of stomach ulcers, blood in the urine or stool, and metastasizing lumps spreading over aging bodies. And inmates with previously diagnosed chronic and serious conditions were also prescribed “two Tylenol.” When they press their cases to obtain the medicines they need, detainees are often thrown into solitary where they are unable to ask for further medical attention or submit grievances.

It certainly doesn't sound like things have improved much at RCDC. The facility's contract with the Bureau of Prisons is up in March, 2010, so we're likely to see more stories about RCDC in the new year.

I received a flurry of text messages yesterday afternoon telling me to tune in to National Public Radio's Fresh Air("Questions On Public-Private Prisons For Immigrants," December 10)interview with Tom Barry yesterday on the growing immigrant incarceration system. Barry's most recent article in the Boston Review and covered ongoing problems at GEO's Reeves County Detention Center in Pecos, the subject of human rights protests this week. The interview is well worth a listen, and touches on many of the issues we cover here at Texas Prison Bid'ness.

At least nine prisoner deaths in the last four years have been reported at Reeves and the facility was home to two major prisoner uprisings last year. Prisoners held at Reeves are segregated based on their immigration status. Many, including several who have died, have served 5 or 10 year sentences for immigration violations.

Two actions are being planned.

1) International Human Rights Day at GEO in New BraunfelsThursday, December 10, 12pm-1pmGEO Offices, 1583 Common Street, New Braunfels, TXAustin carpool and RSVP: blibal@grassrootsleadership.org

2) March andVigil at the Reeves County Detention CenterSaturday, December 12, 11a.m.Reeves County Courthouse,100 E. 4th Street, Pecos, TX

Reeves was the subject of two major investigative pieces in recent months. Forrest Wilder's Texas Observer piece ("The Pecos Insurrection," October 2) chronicled last year's December 12th riot after the death of prisoner Jesus Manuel Galindo. Tom Barry's Boston Reviewstory ("A Death in Texas," November/December 2009) puts Galindo's death and the subsequent disturbances in the context of how Pecos got into the prison-building business in the first place.